The town is situated with its west wall rising from the lake itself, providing both protection from siege from that direction, as well as a source of supplies which would be difficult to cut off. The lake is large enough that it cannot be blockaded from the land easily, and the city was large enough to make any attempt to reach the harbour from shore-based siege weapons very difficult.

The city was surrounded on all sides by 5 km (3 mi) of walls about 10 m (33 ft) high. These were in turn surrounded by a double ditch on the land portions, and also included over 100 towers in various locations. Large gates on the three landbound sides of the walls provided the only entrance to the city.

Today the walls are pierced in many places for roads, but much of the early work survives and as a result it is a tourist destination. The town has a population of about 15,000. It has been a district center of Bursa Province since 1930. It was in the district of Kocaeli between 1923 and 1927 and was a township of Yenişehir (bound to Bilecik before 1926) district between 1927 and 1930.

The town was an important producer of highly decorated fritware vessels and tiles in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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For the history before the Ottoman conquest, see the article on Nicaea.

In 1331, Orhan Icaptured the city from the Byzantines and for a short period the town became the capital of the expanding Ottoman emirate.[4] The large church of Hagia Sophia in the centre of the town was converted into a mosque and became known as the Orhan Mosque.[5] A madrasa and baths were built nearby.[6] In 1334 Orhan built a mosque and an imaret (soup kitchen) just outside the Yenisehir gate (Yenişeh Kapısı) on the south side of the town.[7]

The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta stayed in Iznik at the end of 1331 soon after the capture of the town by Orhan.[8] According to Ibn Battuta, the town was in ruins and only inhabited by a small number of people who were in the service of the sultan. Within the city walls were gardens and cultivated plots with each house surrounded by an orchard. The town produced fruit, walnuts, chestnuts and large sweet grapes.[7][9]

A census in 1520 recorded 379 Muslim and 23 Christian households while a census taken a century later in 1624 recorded 351 Muslim and 10 Christian households. Assuming five members for each household, these figures suggest that the population was around 2,000. Various estimates in the 18th and 19th centuries give similar numbers.[10] The town was poor and the population small even when the ceramic production was at its peak during the second half of the 16th century.[11]

The Byzantine city is estimated to have had a population of 20,000–30,000 but in the Ottoman period the town was never prosperous and occupied only a small fraction of the walled area. The English clergyman John Covel visited Iznik in 1677 and found that only a third of the town was occupied.[12] In 1745 the English traveller Richard Pococke reported that Iznik was no more than a village.[13] A succession of visitors described the town in unflattering terms. After his visit in 1779, the Italian archaeologist Domenico Sestini wrote that Iznik was nothing but an abandoned town with no life, no noise and no movement.[7][14] In 1797 James Dallaway described Iznik as "a wretched village of long lanes and mud walls...".[7][15] The town was seriously damaged in 1921 during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922); the population became refugees and many historical buildings were damaged or destroyed.[16]

The town became more important with the development a pottery and tile making industry during the Ottoman period in the 16th century, known as the İznik Çini. Iznik ceramictiles were used to decorate many of the mosques in Istanbul designed by Mimar Sinan. However, this industry declined in the 17th century[17] and İznik became a mainly agricultural minor town in the area when a major railway bypassed it in the 19th century.

Nilüfer Hatun Soup Kitchen (Nilüfer Hatun Imareti) (1388). The building was abandoned for many years but was restored in 1955 and is now a museum.[21]

Süleyman Pasa Madrasa (mid 14th century). This is one of the two surviving madrasas in the town. It was restored in the 19th century and again in 1968.[22]

Mausoleum of Çandarli Hayreddin Pasa (14th century). The main room contains fifteen sarcophagi. A lower room contains three more sarcophagi including that of Hayreddin Pasha. The mausoleum is located in a cemetery outside the Lefke gate to the east of the town.[23]

Church of the Koimesis/Dormition (6th–8th century but rebuilt after the 1065 earthquake). This was the only church in the town that was not transformed into a mosque.[24] It was decorated with 11th century Byzantine mosaics of which photographs survive.[25][26]

Eşrefzâde Rumi Mosque (15th century). Eşrefzâde Rumi was married to the daughter of Hacı Bayram-ı Veli. He founded a sufi sect and after his death in 1469–70 his tomb became a pilgrimage site.[7] The mosque was decorated with Iznik tiles.[27]

Seyh Kutbeddin Mosque and Mausoleum (15th century). The mausoleum has been rebuilt.[28]